The N750 Wireless Dual-Band WNDR4000 is the first true dual-band router from Netgear that offers the new 450Mbps speed on the 5GHz band. This means it competes directly with Cisco's Linksys E4200, which was released a while ago.

Apart from the guest networking feature, which lets you create separate Internet-only wireless networks for guests, the Netgear seems to trail behind the E4200 on almost all other counts. It's in no way a bad router, however.

As a matter of fact, it topped the chart on the 2.4GHz band in our close-range throughput test, registering a sustained real-world speed of 67.8Mbps. Unfortunately, on this same band, which is currently still the most popularly used, the throughput degrades very quickly as the range increases. In our trials, at 100 feet away the router registered only 23.9Mbps, the biggest drop we've seen.

On the 5GHz band, the router's performance was more consistent, but though it was very fast it was noticeably slower than the E4200. Like all routers with an USB port, the N750's built-in storage network, though well designed, didn't impress us with its throghput performance, even when used via Gigabit Ethernet.

Overall, at a street price of around $150 (about $20 cheaper than the E4200), the Netgear N750 still makes a very good investment for those who want a robust home network option. This is especially true if most of your Wi-Fi clients support the 5GHz band.

To find out if it's the right router for you, check out CNET's full review of the Netgear N750 Wireless Dual-Band Gigabit Router WNDR4000.

About the author

CNET editor Dong Ngo has been involved with technology since 2000, starting with testing gadgets and writing code for CNET Labs' benchmarks. He now manages CNET San Francisco Labs, reviews 3D printers, networking/storage devices, and also writes about other topics from online security to new gadgets and how technology impacts the life of people around the world.
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